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Gartner has a “rule of three” that determines when a MEAP provides important advantages to a company. These are if the company has:

Three or more applications

Three or more back-end systems

Three or more targeted operating systems or platforms

Using pre-built tools and functions, MEAPs help companies develop and support mobile applications. However, a company should only consider investing in MEAPs if mobile applications are part of the core technology strategy.

How to Deploy MEAPs

Once you have determined that a MEAP is of benefit, it is then time to decide how to implement the right solution for your company. Choosing an outsourcing partner with experience in strategically deploying MEAPs will be important. The right outsourcing partner should provide more than just basic implementation. Some services that are vital to successful MEAPs deployment include:

Business process specialists who work closely with business and end-users.

Identification of enterprise applications and functionalities that provide maximum value when mobilized.

In addition to strategic business analysis and solid experience, the best outsourcing partner will bring to the table excellent support and cross-platform knowledge. Key services that outsourcers should provide include:

Custom architecture designed to meet specific scalability and availability demands of customers.

Scalable architecture – Including end to end device management and security from centralized console to centrally manage, secure and deploy mobile data, applications and devices. Mobile applications will be deployed and provisioned over the air and software updates and patches are automatically applied with minimal end user interaction.

What to Expect

Choosing to deploy Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms will provide increased productivity and improved efficiencies from the use of newer mobile devices. The ability to have your business systems accessible to users anywhere will increase their value and use. Plus, your company’s data will be secure and the Total Cost of Ownership will decrease through the ease of management of your entire mobile enterprise. Overall, your company will realize multiple benefits through the solid implementation of MEAPs as part of your mobile strategy.

Mobile Enterprise Application Platforms (MEAPs) are becoming more important to companies that desire a strategic approach for developing and deploying mobile applications. MEAPs, a term defined by Gartner, is a framework that allows effective development, testing, and management of multiple mobile applications across an enterprise.

Why You Need MEAPs?

There are many challenges to deploying and maintaining mobile applications. Before MEAPs, each mobile device had a point to point connection to the company’s data. When companies deploy multiple mobile devices, maintenance and security become significant issues. Each device requires its own updates and the ability to ensure that corporate data is secure. This data is compromised should the device be lost or stolen.

Benefits

Using MEAPs removes the challenges of enterprise level mobile application deployment, maintenance and security. The IT team can rapidly develop applications through the reuse of code, as well as extend an application to meet the company’s needs. Administration becomes significantly easier as there is a central place for troubleshooting. Scalability is no longer a challenge because the IT team can determine loads and redirect quickly and easily if needed.

MEAPs are very effective in the areas of data control and security. With point to point, it is more difficult to determine where the data is going. MEAPs give the company control by supporting roll outs of mass updates as well as implementing the company’s security standards across all mobile devices. If a device is lost or stolen, the data can be easily erased, ensuring the company is not compromised in any way.

Contact us to find out more about MEAPs solutions that fit your Enterprise Mobility needs.

There are a multitude of mobile devices, with more coming to market every day. So how does an organization decide which devices to deploy? And what is the best way to keep up with the changes? The challenges of implementing mobile initiatives must be considered in order to have a successful deployment and ongoing program. Data security is a challenge that immediately pops to mind. Ensuring that data cannot be intercepted or protected if the device is stolen must be considered. In addition, ensuring successful deployments, supporting multiple devices, keeping maintenance costs down all while integrating mobile and desktop applications are all challenges that need to be addressed in any enterprise mobility deployment.

Things to Consider Before Deployment

To ensure successful enterprise mobility deployment, CIOs should consider partnering with a seasoned managed services provider that specializes in enterprise mobility strategy, application development and deployment. The reality of these deployments is most organizations, particularly larger enterprises, will find it difficult, if not impossible, to standardize platforms and devices. There will simply be a large number of devices to support. Even ensuring a solid mobile management platform can be a daunting task.

Utilizing a managed services provider to create an enterprise mobility strategy saves money, ensures the ROI an enterprise wishes to have, and decreases operational costs. Obviously finding a services provider with experience is critical, but there are other components to consider as well. When deciding on the right managed services provider for your organization, consider the following:

Does the provider conduct a mobility architecture and strategy workshop designed to meet specific scalability and availability demands of customers?

Is there heterogeneous back-end support that provides seamless integration with many back-end data sources including databases, web services, SAP applications and other enterprise & custom applications that also leverages Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)?

Is there heterogeneous Device support including rapid deployment ofmobile applicationsacross multiple device types?

Is the architecture scalable and include end-to-end device management from a centralized console?

While developing and implementing new initiatives are certainly not new to IT departments, the investment in various platforms, hardware, software and training can add up quickly. Partnering with a managed services provider who specializes in enterprise mobility strategy, development and deployment can improve an organization’s deployment time, provide expertise on a much larger scale, and ensure the ROI is realized for your company.

Contact us at rmantras.com, and find out how you can benefit from partnering with us in successfully deploying Mobility Solution for your enterprise.

Mobile devices are rapidly becoming a key component of success for enterprises in 2011. With consistent deployment of devices and applications, the ability to transform a workforce into an efficient mobile powerhouse has never been easier. Constant application development can save dollars for the smart enterprise willing to utilize what is available rather than create from scratch. As with all things in technology, such rapid change also creates concern for security. Therefore, partnering with a good managed services provider for your enterprise mobility strategy, application development and deployment is also a key success factor.

Current Trends

According to a recent Forrester Research survey, organizations have experienced outstanding results from deploying mobile applications, including:

75% increased worker productivity

65% increased employee responsiveness and decision-making speed

48% increase in customer issue resolution

42% increase in customer satisfaction

These results speak for themselves. Obviously having a solid enterprise mobility strategy improves your organization’s operations and positively impacts the bottom line. The benefits do not stop there. Organizations will attract higher-end IT talent, empower their staff to take action in real-time, and increase service-level agreements through immediate data input.

Benefits

The return on investment (ROI) through investing in an enterprise mobility strategy is quite high, and includes:

Managed services providers make it their business to know the latest technology updates, security breaches, and database administration support tactics. A good service provider hires the best people, partners with the primary technology providers, and designs packages to improve their clients’ ROI.

Tips on Choosing the right Managed Services Provider

When deciding on the right managed services provider for your organization, you want to ensure the following is included:

Expert, full-time DBAs providing 24×7 administration and support

Multi-platform remote management for major database software such as Oracle, Sybase, Microsoft and MySQL

Managed services companies provide remote database administration to augment your existing IT team or to replace what is currently in position. The flexibility of remote database support gives any organization convenient service schedules through cost-efficient services delivered easily and securely. As organizations are continually streamlining their approach to IT, considering a managed service for remote database administration and other IT services is an affordable and reliable option to save money and increase productivity.

Many companies are turning to managed services to cut costs and optimize IT operations. The primary focus of a managed services organization is to provide outstanding services and support to their clients while generating a positive return on investment. These companies have seasoned DBAs providing appropriate support and troubleshooting as well as solid database infrastructure to house an organization’s most sensitive data.

According to industry reports, standard savings when outsourcing your organization’s database administration is 40 to 60 percent. Considering the ability of a managed services provider to improve your database administration and provide positive ROI, it is a prudent business decision to consider outsourcing.

Regardless of the size of an organization, mission-critical data is kept within various databases, allowing for easier access by appropriate personnel. The capability to keep this data secure and readily available is vital to an organization, making the role of database administration one of great importance. Unfortunately, hiring a good database administrator (DBA) can be tricky, and expensive. Fortunately, there are options to placing DBAs on your organization’s payroll. Utilizing managed services and remote database administration will save your organization money and ensure that your data is kept secure and available to your employees at all times.

Why is database administration costly?

When considering who to hire for your database administration, it is prudent to find someone who is able to handle even the most drastic of issues. People of this caliber and experience typically command greater compensation. However, many of the tasks performed by DBAs are often maintenance and updates that under-utilize your high-end database administrator. Choosing to hire an IT professional that only performs maintenance could save money, but will put your data at risk. Companies need DBA’s who can ensure security and access to data at all times while occasionally performing some database design.

Another cost consideration is infrastructure and software. Keeping your database running on appropriate hardware can run into significant dollars. Plus, your organization will have to endure database software updates regularly without disruption to data access. These updates typically occur after normal business hours, which can increase personnel expense through compensation for working these hours.